Country guide
Pay transparency in United Kingdom
What the EU Pay Transparency Directive means for employers in United Kingdom, based on its national transposition — status, thresholds, the joint-assessment trigger, and where to file.
The United Kingdom is not an EU member state: Directive (EU) 2023/970 does not apply. TWO national regimes run in parallel — SI 2017/172 for private and voluntary-sector employers (5 April snapshot) and SI 2017/353 Sch. 1 for Schedule 2 public authorities (31 March snapshot) — because s. 78(2) of the Equality Act 2010 excludes Schedule 19 bodies and government departments from the power the first is made under. Section 33 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 IS in force, from 6 April 2026 (SI 2026/323 reg. 3(1), (7) — not 18 December 2025, which is the Act's Royal Assent date), and it inserted s. 78A EA 2010. s. 78A is a POWER, not a duty: "Regulations may require employers to…", subject to a public-authority carve-out the GPG regime does not have, and its subject matter extends beyond the pay gap to supporting employees through the menopause (s. 78A(4)(b)). No regulations under it were found — a legislation.gov.uk title search for "equality action plan" returns 0 instruments against a control search for "gender pay gap" returning 1 — which establishes that no instrument SO TITLED is published, not an index of instruments made under the power. ERA 2025 s. 34 (naming the supplier of a contract worker) is a power too and no commencement was found for it.
United Kingdom is outside the scope of the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The figures below describe its national pay-reporting regime instead.
Reporting duties apply by employer size: 250 or more employees, from 2017. The directive's 5% trigger for a joint pay assessment applies until national law sets its own.
The pay-gap figures must be published, not just filed with the authority. Either way, the underlying work is the same: establish work of equal value through gender-neutral job evaluation, produce the statutory pay-gap report in the national format, and run a joint assessment where the gap is too wide.
Obligations at a glance
| Reporting threshold |
|
|---|---|
| Joint pay assessment | — |
| Public publication | Required |
| Competent authority | Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) |
Frequently asked
Is the EU Pay Transparency Directive in force in United Kingdom?
United Kingdom is outside the scope of the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The figures below describe its national pay-reporting regime instead.
Which employers have to report in United Kingdom?
Reporting duties apply by employer size: 250 or more employees, from 2017.
What triggers a joint pay assessment in United Kingdom?
The directive's 5% trigger for a joint pay assessment applies until national law sets its own.
This guide summarises publicly available information for orientation only. It is not legal advice — confirm every figure against United Kingdom's own transposition text before relying on it.